Leveling Up Alone

“Alright, we will start the meeting,” Yoo-Bi said.

Yoo-Bi had been recently promoted to the role of manager and was no longer a Porter. When she did not hunt with Han-Yeol, she used that time to study hard and gain experience, which resulted in her being skilled enough to be promoted to a manager.

“Yes!” the production crew answered as they all shifted their focus to Yoo-Bi.

“The channel that is being created is Han-Yeol Hunter-nim’s personal Hunter channel,” Yoo-Bi explained.

Murmur… Murmur… Murmur…

The production crew was fully aware that the job they had applied for was for a personal channel, but they came today with a hint of skepticism that somebody would actually run a channel alone. However, they could not help but be taken by surprise after hearing it themselves during the team meeting.

It was only natural for the production crew to be concerned for their safety because they had to go inside the hunting ground along with the Hunter to film the hunt. The production crew obviously had insurance, but the insurance payout was not worth more than their lives no matter how big it was.

“I know what everyone is concerned about, but I have gone on numerous hunts with Han-Yeol Hunter-nim for more than six months, and I can assure you that you do not have to worry about your safety,” Yoo-Bi said confidently.

The production crew still found it hard to fully trust a single Hunter to protect all of them, but they were no longer at the point of refusing the job when they heard that there was not a single incident for more than six months.

Hunters and ordinary people alike valued their lives, and it was only natural for them to be worried about their own well-being.

Rather, it was safe to assume that the Hunters were more concerned about their own well-being than an average person was.

All humans were created equal, but the difference in social contribution and value could not be compared between a Hunter and an average person.

The meeting ended with Yoo-Bi informing the production crew of a couple of precautions and the schedule for the future.

“Hmm,” Han-Yeol muttered while staring at the monitor, seemingly in deep thought.

Staying behind to clean something up, Yoo-Bi asked, “Oppa, is something bothering you?”

“I really think we should either rent or purchase our own office space,” Han-Yeol said.

“Well, I think that is not a bad idea,” Yoo-Bi said.

The current location where Han-Yeol and the production crew were holding the meeting was not actually his office but a gathering café. A gathering café was a new kind of trendy café that rented out rooms for people to hold meetings at an hourly rate.

It was not particularly inconvenient or uncomfortable, but Han-Yeol wanted his production crew to have their own office where they could work at ease.

‘With all the best equipment and the best welfare benefits…’ Han-Yeol thought.

Han-Yeol secretly fantasized about stuff like this.

He dreamt of becoming a successful CEO or chairman of some foundation that provided a great work environment and benefits to his employees.

He could not explain why, but he was fond of these kinds of stories.

Han-Yeol knew nothing about running a company, he did not have the ability to start one, and most importantly, he did not have the time to run one.

However, he decided that it would not be so bad to fulfill his dream through his channel since he was going to operate a broadcasting channel anyway.

“Yoo-Bi, where do you think is a good location for an office?” Han-Yeol asked Yoo-Bi.

“Hmm… I think Hongdae is a good location,” Yoo-Bi answered.

“Hongdae?” Han-Yeol said.

“Yes, I think Hongdae will be suitable since it is famous among young people, and it is also easy to access since it is located in Gangbuk as well. Also, there are plenty of new buildings being built at Hongdae, so it will be easy for us to find an office as well.

“Is that so?” Han-Yeol muttered in response.

Han-Yeol also thought that it was a good idea.

He had been to Hongdae a couple of times himself, and it was really a famous place among young people. Also, the fact that it was located in Gangbuk was quite appealing to him as well.

“Okay, then I guess I should start looking for a real estate agent?” Han-Yeol said.

“I suppose so?” Yoo-Bi replied.

Yoo-Bi did not really know what to suggest, since she was only an eighteen years old girl—legally seventeen, actually, since her birthday had not passed yet. She was still learning about the world and adapting to society, even though she was working as a Porter to make ends meet.

Han-Yeol had no idea how to manage his money properly, even though his financial and social status had improved a lot, because he came from a poor family and he had never had a lot of money.

‘Money will find its way in if it wants to come in,’ Han-Yeol thought as he recalled his view on money.

This exact attitude he had toward money was the main reason for him having poor management of his finances, but it did not seem to really bother him all that much.

“Oppa, why don’t you hire a professional to manage your assets for you?” Yoo-Bi suddenly said.

“That’s a good idea. Maybe I should do that,” Han-Yeol said as he seriously considered Yoo-Bi’s suggestion.

‘Well, most of my money is just sitting in my account since I’m spending way less than what I’m earning right now...’ Han-Yeol thought.

Yoo-Bi’s suggestion made him realize that it would be good to have somebody manage his money in a more systematic way and make investments here and there.

“Ah, now that I think about it,” Han-Yeol said.

“What is it, have you thought of a good idea?” Yoo-Bi asked.

“Yes, I have a friend named Sung-Jin. He started working as a Porter not too long ago, but he used to be a banker. He probably knows a thing or two about it,” Han-Yeol said.

Han-Yeol could have searched online for ways to manage his finances or just outright hired a financial manager, but he was well aware from his own experience that the sources from the internet were not very reliable.

Most of the results he got online were always promotional posts, even though he was using South Korea’s main search engine run by N Company.

He used to depend on the Q&A section of the community board for information, but that had been invaded by the promotional posts as well in recent days and most of the posts that could be found there were ads for products or companies.

Han-Yeol picked up his phone and pressed the number two on his speed dial.

Ring… Ring… Ring… Ring… Ring… Ring…

[What?]

“Are you busy?” Han-Yeol said.

[No, why?]

“Let’s meet, I need to ask you something,” Han-Yeol said.

[I don't feel like going.]

“Drinks are on me,” Han-Yeol said.

[See you there.]

It was a rule among men to keep phone calls short.

That was how Han-Yeol set up an appointment in record time without even setting a meeting place as they both seemed to already know where they were going to meet.

Han-Yeol looked at Yoo-Bi after he hung up the phone and asked, “Yoo-Bi, do you want to come along?”

“Why should I?” Yoo-Bi asked while she tilted her head in confusion.

She did not understand why she had to go meet somebody that she had never met before.

“W-Well That’s…” Han-Yeol stuttered as her blunt response made him feel embarrassed.

He asked her to go with him without giving it much thought, but her direct response left him speechless.

“J-Just because?” Han-Yeol continued to stutter.

“Stop saying nonsense. I’m going home now, have a nice day,” Yoo-Bi said in response.

‘Ugh…’ Han-Yeol groaned inwardly in embarrassment.

Yoo-Bi stretched her arms. This was a habit of hers whenever she was about to go home after finishing work.

“I-Is that so?” Han-Yeol stuttered.

“Yes, I am a very busy person,” Yoo-Bi said.

“O-Okay, well thank you for your hard work today,” Han-Yeol said.

“Yes oppa, thank you for your hard work today as well. Call me when we’re ready to go hunting,” Yoo-Bi said.

“Okay…” Han-Yeol replied.

He was still embarrassed about what had happened so he wanted to quickly send Yoo-Bi home. Then, he also left the meeting room since the rental time was almost over.

‘Ughh… That was embarrassing,’ Han-Yeol thought inwardly.

He just wanted to be with Yoo-Bi, so he made the offer to go out for drinks, but he could not help but feel bitter by getting rejected so directly.

The current time was 4:48 pm.

He had about three hours to spare, since he was supposed to meet Sung-Jin at eight.

‘There’s not enough time for me to go home and come back out again, but there’s too much time to just wait it out… What should I do to kill time…?’ he wondered.

Han-Yeol walked down the road, but he noticed that everybody was looking at him.

That was because Han-Yeol had been bringing his HSK-447 rifle and his sword with him at all times ever since he was attacked by the killers.

“Look, it's a Hunter,” one of the people on the street said.

“Do you think he's a high-rank Hunter?” another asked.

“Hey, c’mon. Do you really think those high and mighty high-rankers will breathe the same air as us? They think so highly of themselves that they would not step a single foot in our neighborhood. I’m sure he’s a low-rank Hunter,” the passerby said.

“I guess you have a point,” the other person replied.

In the past, the caste system was legally abolished, but then a capitalistic society took over dividing the society into three classes—the poor, the middle class, and the one percentile of the world.

However, a small number of people started awakening as Hunters after the dimensional gates appeared, and the fourth class in society was added.

This new class was none other than the Hunters.

The Hunters were considered as a walking weapon of mass destruction, and they were the only ones capable of killing the monsters coming out from the dimensional gates. This made them feel superior to the common people, and they demanded their own residential areas to be erected so that they could be segregated from the common folks.

The chance of someone awakening was a game of chance, and the chance of a person awakening as a Hunter was the highest among the poor people, since they comprised most of the fifty million population of South Korea. This social class also had the highest number of people applying to become Porters, since they had to make ends meet.

That was why the social standing of a Hunter coupled with the inferiority complex of the poor made them want to openly brag about their new social status as an important pillar of the new world.

It initially started with the abuse of power by the Hunters, and now it was at the point of segregating neighborhoods between ordinary people and Hunters.

The segregation made things easier for the government to manage both neighborhoods, but the social atmosphere between the neighborhoods was not doing as well as the government hoped it would.

“Sigh… I still envy him even if he is just a low-rank Hunter… He lives in a world where we can’t even dream of living and he probably makes a lot of money… I wish I was a Hunter too,” the passerby said.

“Stop it, do you even have what it takes to handle the life of a Porter?” the other man asked.

“Sigh… I would’ve been a Hunter a long time ago if I did,” the passerby said.

The government desperately wanted to increase the number of Hunters in the country, but they did not wish for young people, who were the driving workforce of the country, to all rush toward becoming a Porter.

The government only wanted those with the determination required to survive the harsh industry to apply for this job, and that was why they produced several documentaries that explicitly showed the real life of a Porter. These documentaries aired during the prime time hours, and as a result, a lot of young people gave up on becoming a Porter.

Also, the fact that there were some live broadcasts of a party being wiped out did not help convince those who were thinking otherwise, and this helped push the government’s agenda of balancing the workforce.

‘Yes, just keep on living like that,’ Han-Yeol thought.

He heard everything that they were saying, but he did not really mind it since he understood that they were only saying these things out of envy.

Numerous people looked at Han-Yeol with eyes full of envy and jealousy as he walked down the road.

As Han-Yeol was proudly walking down the road, the ground suddenly started to shake.

Rumble…! Rumble…! Rumble…! Rumble…! Rumble…!

“Kyaaaahk!”

“E-Earthquake!” the people shouted, startled by the sudden earthquake.

There were news reports that the land underneath some portions of Gyeongju was in a severely weakened state, but that was not supposed to trigger such a strong earthquake that people would start wobbling on the streets. The earthquake that occurred in Gyeongju only affected it and the areas around it.

The people were panicking at the slight tremor since South Korea was believed to be an earthquake-free country, and the recent earthquake in Gyeongju, which was only 5.8 magnitude, made people think that the country was no longer safe from earthquakes.

Just when the tremor had subsided, another tremor was triggered that made some people wobble and land on their butts.

Fortunately, the earthquake stopped after a while.

“I-It stopped,” one person said.

“Phew, that's a relief,” another person said.

“What’s going on?” one person asked with a confused look on their face.

The people breathed a sigh of relief as they all took out their phones to check if there was anything special on the news.

They all heard the news reports about the earthquakes happening in Gyeongju, but they were trying to find out why a tremor was so strong that it reached all the way to Seoul.

Everyone had just calmed down when another event sent them into a panic once again.

Baaaaaaam!

A powerful explosion suddenly occurred in a nearby building.

“Kyaaaah!”

“I-It’s an explosion!” a panicked voice said.

“W-What the hell?” another said.

Chaos incomparable to the one the earthquake had caused erupted throughout the area.

An entire floor of the building was engulfed in flames caused by the explosion, and anyone who was remotely familiar with this kind of occurrence could recognize what had happened.

‘T-That’s not a natural explosion,’ Han-Yeol thought.

‘I-It’s a bomb.’

‘I-It’s a terror attack.’

The people were at a loss for what to do, because this was the first time that they had experienced such a thing.

Whiiiing…! Whiiing…!

Weewoo! Weewoo!

Surprisingly, a police car was seen speeding toward the building in record response time.

However,

Fwaaaaa!

‘Watch out!’ Han-Yeol exclaimed inwardly.

A powerful flame shot out from the floor where the explosion occurred, and the flames flew toward the police car so fast that they hit it before the police car was able to react.

Baaaaam!

“Kyaaaaah!”

“Help me!”

The police car exploded, causing additional casualties as people were caught up in the blast.

‘It’s an awakened being,’ Han-Yeol thought as he immediately activated his skill. ‘Demon Eyes.’

In the midst of all the chaos, Han-Yeol kept his uniquely calm demeanor and used the Demon Eyes to scan the place where the flame wave came from.

Han-Yeol thoroughly scanned the burning floor, and he saw three people standing inside the burning building.

‘Are they strong?’ Han-Yeol wondered.

He was standing quite a distance from them, so he could not properly gauge their strength, but he could tell from the attack just now that they were not average awakened beings.

‘Should I get involved in this situation?’ Han-Yeol pondered for a moment.

It was pretty obvious that the current situation was not to be taken lightly. A vicious terrorist attack has just occurred in South Korea, which was known to be a terror-free country.